We were just visiting my wife's grandparents with her dad and step mom. My wife's dad divorced her mom twenty years ago, and during the divorce she got "everything". This included a case of 1986 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, which disappeared. He had claimed to have "drank it". Lo and behold, twenty-six years later, my wife receives this wine as a gift!

He gave this to us gift-wrapped with a couple instructions, "Be careful, it's heavy. Also it's fragile. Oh, and don't tell your mom."

My wife put two and two together, and figured out what it was based on the fact that felt like a wooden crate, it was heavy, and the instructions about not telling her mom. She had to unwrap it right then to know for sure, but she was dead on.

Here's what I want to do: I want to sell this, and just get her mom something nice for Christmas. I'm thinking a nice tablet, or a TV. The box is in beautiful shape, unopened, and full of wine. My wife says she remembers seeing this stored in the basement at his place, and I assume it's relatively protected from light; I'll admit, I am not a wine drinker, and am unsure if that even matters.

A caveat: we can't just give her mom the wine. This would re-open shitty wounds that have long since healed over, and neither of us want to do that. Also, this is not meant to vilify my father-in-law. He's a nice guy, and this is the right thing to do: get it back to his ex in some roundabout fashion.

Again, not being a wine connoisseur, I have no idea what this is worth. Where do I sell this stuff?

This wine was at its peak awhile ago so finding a buyer might be hard especially because there's no way of knowing what it was exposed to all of those years. Mondavi Reserve (I assume that's what it is) is an alright wine but it's nothing special. You might be able to get a anywhere from 500-1000 for it if you found someone who really likes the wine, but I'm skeptical.

1994 was very good but they are likely at or getting past peak. Oddly 1991 & 1992 are the best for ageworthy Cali cab in the 1990's. 94 was so highly praised because of how damn good most wines were young.

Naw, my wife was born a few years prior. This was just a bunch of wine which would eventually get drank.

It was not my intention to make this a moral argument, but the man would have lost the wine in the divorce had he not lied about it. If that's how my wife gets gifts from her dad, she would rather not.

This was her mom's 20 years ago, and regardless of her dad's intentions, once a gift is given, the giver releases control of the gift. This was a contentious issue during the divorce, and we would prefer to be rid of it.

Hang on, so your mother in law got "everything", and you're going to slap your father in law in the face by turning a gift that he chose to give to his daughter into a present for his ex wife who from the sounds of it he got fucked by in a divorce? Why?

Well, it seems that this was something of great value to your wife's father, who went through a lot of trouble to smuggle the wine out and keep it until now. I would accept it as the gift it was given, and if there are consequences to this, then that is between her father and mother. If your wife cannot take it on these conditions, perhaps she should reevaluate the relationship she and her father have, because it sounds as if there might be some held over animosity. I'm not out to judge, but it does seem silly to throw away something that he obviously wanted badly to share with you two.
If it is because he asked for her to not mention it to her mother, then she needs to address him with this and explain she's not comfortable with that, and possibly return it to him. Selling it is really kind of insulting, considering the trouble he went through.

But hey, if you guys really want to sell them, that IS your choice to make. Just be prepared for the consequences if he comes by and is curious of how you liked his gift and you have to break the news of what you did with it. He could be fairly hurt. Just a thought.